NTPD clock correction error

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Summary

The network time protocol (NTP) daemon stops running when a time offset larger than 1000 seconds appears after the clock was initially set at boot time. Often, this indicates a problem with the upstream time servers outside of the ESXi host.

Example

An event similar to the following displays:

NTP daemon stopped. Time correction (value) > 1000 seconds. Manually set the time and restart ntpd.

Impact

The system clock is no longer set by the NTP daemon, and the system time might drift significantly from the correct time.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Resolution

Set the system clock manually and restart the NTP daemon.

To restart the NTP daemon on an ESXi host:

1. Login to the ESXi console as root.
2. Type the following command to restart the NTP daemon:
   
   /etc/init.d/ntpd restart